Chapter 8 Early Childhood: Physical Development

1. Chapter 8Early Childhood:Physical Development

2. Growth Patterns Height and Weight

3. What Changes Occur in Height and Weight During Early Childhood? • Growth rate slows • 2 to 3 inches per year • 4 to 6 pounds per year • Individual variation • As a group, boys are slightly taller and heavier

4. Figure 8.1 Growth Curves for Height and Weight, Ages 2 to 6 Years

5. Growth Patterns Development of the Brain

6. How Does the Brain Develop During Early Childhood? • Rapid growth in weight due to myelination • By age 5 – brain is 90% of adult weight • Visual Skills • Improved attention and visual processing skills • Specialization of hemispheres

7. What Does It Mean to Be Left-brained or Right-brained? • Left-brained • Logical, problem solving, language and mathematical computations • Right-brained • Visual-spatial functions, recognition of faces, discrimination of color, aesthetic and emotional responses, understanding metaphors, creative mathematical reasoning • Functions overlap • Myelination of corpus callosum

8. What Is Meant by “Plasticity of the Brain”? • Ability to compensate for injury • Greatest plasticity at 1 to 2 years • Other areas may assume functions lost to injury • Sprouting • Growth of new dendrites • Redundancy of neural connections

9. Motor Development

10. How Do Motor Skills Develop in Early Childhood? • Gross motor skills • Involve large muscles used in locomotion • Differences in gross motor development • Little sex differentiation • More individual differences • Physical Activity • Rough and tumble play • Activity levels

11. Developing in a World of Diversity Sex Differences in Motor Activity

12. How Do Motor Skills Develop in Early Childhood? • Fine motor skills • Involve small muscles used in manipulation and coordination • Proximodistal trend accounts for lag in fine motor skills • Children’s Drawing

13. Figure 8.2 The Twenty Basic Scribbles (Really)

14. Figure 8.3 Four Stages in Children’s Drawings

15. When Does Handedness Emerge? • Emerges and shows preference during infancy • Becomes strongly established during early childhood • Majority of people are right-handed

16. Are There Problems Connected With Being Left-handed? • Connections have been made with • Language problems • Dyslexia and stuttering • Health problems • Migraine headaches and allergies • Psychological problems • Schizophrenia and depression • Higher frequencies of left-handers have been made with • Mathematical abilities • Athletic abilities • Artistic, musical and architectural

17. What Are the Origins of Handedness? • Genetic component • Seems to run in families • Identical twins • Frequently differ in handedness • Mirror opposites

18. Nutrition

19. What Are Children’s Nutritional Needs and Their Eating Habits Like in Early Childhood? • Nutritional Needs • Need more overall calories than toddlers • Slower growth rate - less calories per pound • Patterns of Eating • Appetite decreases and becomes erratic • Preference for sugar and salt with exposure

20. Health and Illness

21. What Are Some of the Illnesses and Environmental Hazards Encountered During Early Childhood? • Minor illnesses • Respiratory infections • Colds, sore throat • Gastrointestinal upsets • Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea • In developing countries, diarrheal illness is leading killer of children • Major illnesses • Immunizations, antibiotics reduced major illness in US • One-third of children in US under 18 years suffer from some type of chronic illness • Globally 13 million children die each year • Two-thirds die of pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, tetanus, whooping cough and tb

22. A Closer Look Ten Things You Need To Know About Immunizations

23. Figure 8.4 Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule, United States, July-December, 2004

24. A Closer Look Lead Poisoning: Assessing the Risk

25. Developing in a World of Diversity Ethnicity, Level of Income, and Immunization  USA

26. Accidents and Prevention of Accidental Injury • Most common cause of death in young children in US • Motor vehicle accidents • Low-income children most likely to die from accidents • Legislation to prevent accidents • Child safety seats in cars • Window guards in apartment buildings • Toy and clothing safety standards

27. Sleep

28. How Much Sleep is Needed During Early Childhood? • Preschoolers average 10 to 11 hours per 24 hour period • 9 to 10 hours at night • 1 to 2 hour nap

29. Developing in a World of Diversity Cross-Cultural Differences in Sleeping Arrangements

30. Sleep Disorders

31. What Kinds of Problems or Disorders Disrupt Sleep During Early Childhood? • Sleep terrors • Occur early in night during deep sleep • May be associated with stress • Nightmares • Occur later in night during REM sleep • Insomnia • Somnambulism (sleepwalking) • Onset between ages 3 and 8 • Occurs early in night during deep sleep

32. Elimination Disorders

33. When Are Children Considered To Be Gaining Control Over Elimination Too Slowly? • Maturation plays a critical role in toilet training • Most US children are trained between 3 and 4 • Enuresis • Based on age of child and frequency of “accident” • Bed-wetting • More frequent in boys than girls • Numerous causes • Organic, psychological, stress, sleep disorder

34. A Closer Look What To Do About Bed-Wetting

35. When Are Children Considered To Be Gaining Control Over Elimination Too Slowly? • Encopresis • More common in boys than girls • Less common than enuresis, more common in daytime • Causes may be physical or psychological